American football is a man-to-man collision sport and a variety of serious injuries to the head and neck can and do result from collisions on the football field and during practice. While conventional football helmets and shoulder pads do a relatively good job of protecting the head and shoulders of the player, they afford almost no protection to the neck and the most devastating injuries suffered by football players are neck and upper spinal injuries. These injuries can result in permanent paralysis or death.
A number of attempts have been made to improve the protection afforded the head and neck of football players. See, for example, Varteression U.S. Pat. No. 3,873,996 and Newman U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,193. While devices such as those shown in these patents offer some protection to a player's neck, the devices themselves could serve as a source of injury to other players. More importantly, such devices do not protect the player during a head-on collision.
It is a major object of my invention to provide adequate protection of the head, neck and shoulders of football players even during a head-on collision. A further object of my invention is to provide adequate protection without undue restriction of the player's head, neck, shoulders and arms and at the same time restricting excessive head movements which may result in serious injury.
After considerable experimentation and testing, I have invented a unique head, neck and shoulder protective device which provides adequate protection particularly of the player's neck even during a head-on collision. My device is made largely of molded high strength thermosetting materials and includes a shoulder protector having at its center an annular track which surrounds a hole large enough for the player's head to pass through. A helmet assembly is rotatably mounted on the annular track. The helmet assembly includes an annular ring rotatable upon the track, a circular helmet carrying housing which has two upwardly projecting flanges onto which a helmet is pivotably mounted.
Preferably the track upon which the annular ring rotates includes a plurality of conical rollers which fit into an annular groove in the bottom side of the annular ring, so as to provide almost frictionless rotation of the helmet assembly in response to sideways movements of the player's head.
The helmet, helmet carrying housing, shoulder protector and some other parts are preferably molded of a light weight high impact strength material such as boron or carbon fiber reinforced styrene or epoxy resin.